The present invention relates to business applications and in particular to processing business objects between different business applications.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
An enterprise typically operates several business applications in order to manage its business. Typical business applications include processes such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relations Management (CRM), and so on. Each business application typically maintains its own business objects and master data. Integration of these business applications typically require synchronization of master data that is common between systems. A specific example, a business integration scenario between SAP® ERP and SAP® Business ByDesign or SAP® networked applications (e.g., SAP® Sales on Demand) may require synchronization of master data between the participating systems (typically referred to as communication partners).
Very often, a clear data ownership of business objects cannot be defined and changes to master data may be initiated by any of the communication partners. Furthermore, business applications typically are aware of only their own business objects. Therefore, identifying business objects across business applications presents a challenge when attempting to synchronize data (e.g., master data) among several business applications.
To illustrate, consider the usage scenario shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. An enterprise 100 may have multiple business systems deployed to run its business. Suppose a legacy system 102 has a previously installed business application (e.g., SAP® ERP) and that a new system 104 has been installed (e.g., SAP® ByDesign or SAP® sales on Demand). Referring to FIG. 1A, changes made to business objects in the legacy system 102 may need to be synchronized with corresponding business objects in the new system 104 in order to maintain data consistency and data integrity within the enterprise. However, while the legacy system 102 will know about its locally created and managed business objects, the legacy system is not likely to know about the business objects in the new system 104. Vice versa, referring to FIG. 1B, changes made to business objects in the new system 104 may need to be synchronized with corresponding business objects in the legacy system 102. However, the new system 104 is not likely to know which business objects in the legacy system 102 correspond to its local business objects.
These and other issues are addressed by embodiments of the present invention, individually and collectively.